A PAPER BOAT

Whether it provided that or not, the boat was ready to move. Propelled by a grant from the Platforms Fund, we organized a free outdoor writing retreat in the marshes - the Workshop on the Water. Local farmer, writer, wetlands guide and friend, Eleanor Warner, came fully on board, along with another friend, Kate Kokontis, who is a critical race historian, writer, and educator at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. We put out a call for applicants and gathered a group of 8 emerging voices from South Louisiana who were willing to spend two days and a night surrounded by nothing but strangers and sprawling acres of brackish wetlands. These marshes, Kate's carefully-engineered writing program (which you can access here), the openness of all the writers, the fresh food, the migration of the pogies, all came together to create something special. Back in New Orleans, we combined the stories into a new magazine and added them to the boat. We then came back together at the CORE USA gallery..